About

Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party

$72,140

pledged of $55,000 goal

1,139

backers

...to join our dinner party--if you dare!

Shipwrecked Comedy wants to throw a murder mystery dinner party for the ages, but we can’t do it without your help! What legendary authors has Edgar invited to his party, and who will be playing them? Will he manage to woo Annabel Lee away from Eddie the banker, a great guy? Will your favorite author survive the night? These are burning questions that will only be answered as we creep towards our kickstarter goal and eventually cross it! If we don’t, the answers will be left untouched in Edgar’s walled-in wine cellar forever…

Shipwrecked Comedy has produced the popular series "A Tell Tale Vlog" and "Kissing in the Rain" and this production is their biggest yet. Written by Sean and Sinead Persaud and produced with the help of Mary Kate Wiles, Shipwrecked is amassing a cast of nearly twenty actors to tell a story over ten episodes. There will be comedy, intrigue, romance, and of course, murder…and we want you to be a part of it.

$55,000 seems like a lot of money, but it is the bare minimum we need to shoot a project of this size—comparable to a feature film. To sweeten the deal, every $5000 mark we hit we will announce a new member of the dinner party and who will be playing them. We’ve got some pretty incredible people on board and we are so excited to reveal them to you. Below is a breakdown of how the funds will be spent:

We’ve been working on this project for over a year and we can’t wait to bring it to your screens. By contributing to our kickstarter, you’re getting a direct connection to our production and team. Get behind the scenes updates and limited edition posters and merchandise. You might even join us for an in-person dinner party (murder not included).

See you at the party, and bring your appetite... for murder.

Ravishing ravens, we've hit our goal! We are so excited that this dinner party is happening! Since this is a production of gigantic proportions for us here at Shipwrecked, we're adding some stretch goals to help us make our dinner party the most fantastic it could possibly be!

Stretch Goal #1 - $58,000: If we hit $58K, we'll be able to make bonus author content that we will release leading up to the series to introduce our fabulous literary guests. Ever wanted Hemingway to teach you how to clean a knife? Wonder what Mary Shelley's thoughts on I, Frankenstein would be? Hit this goal, and we'll find out!

Stretch Goal #2 - $61,000: If we reach $61K, we'll be able to hire a videographer to be on set to take exclusive video and interviews and be in charge of all our behind-the scenes content. It will help us, the creative team, focus on making sure the shoot goes smoothly, and ensure we can create the best behind-the-scenes content possible, which will improve all of your perks!

Stretch Goal #3 - $65,000: If we hit $65K, we'll be able to add and produce a short epilogue to the series. Don't you want to see what happens after all the murder goes down?

For the last week of the campaign, we're introducing some Add-On perks that you can add to any existing tier!

$15 Add-On: Just like the table at a fancy dinner party, your computer or smartphone should be draped in the finest decorative cloth or digital image file. Enjoy this package with desktop backgrounds and phone wallpapers featuring every single one of your favorite Poe Party characters. The images are different from the ones used in the character posters!

$25 Add-On: Are you mad Edgar didn't invite you to his dinner party? Just order one of these personalized character posters, then send us a photo of you, and we'll send you back a digital file placing you in a Poe Party poster. Trick your friends! Fool your family! And live to tell the tale...

$35 Add-On: Since our posters were voted "Best Character Posters Featuring Real Authors in a Fictionalized Murder Mystery Webseries," we figured you might want access to more than one. These add-on posters are unsigned but still very atmospheric and incredibly murdery.

How to add "Add-Ons":

Go to Manage Your Pledge

Increase your pledge in the Pledge Amount Box by the total $ amount of your desired add-ons

After the campaign ends, you'll get a backer survey to fill out

In that survey you'll specify which add-ons you chose

REMINDER: If an add-on could bump your pledge into a higher reward tier, be sure not to change your reward selection to that tier or we'll send you everything in that higher reward tier instead of your add-ons!

Sean Persaud (Writer, Producer, Actor - Edgar Allan Poe)

Sean Persaud has been on television screens in numerous commercials and shows like Without a Trace, Cougar Town, and Chasing Life. He has been on computer screens in the Shipwrecked Comedy series A Tell Tale Vlog and Kissing in the Rain, as well as the New Form Digital short I Ship It (featured at Sundance Film Festival 2015). One time, one of his commercials played in front of the first Hobbit movie, so we can say he's been on movie screens too. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his cat and a crippling inability to grow a mustache.

Sinead Persaud (Writer, Producer, Actor - Lenore the Lady Ghost)

Sinead is a Los Angeles based writer, actress and ouija board owner. She is also perpetually haunted by one of the hitchhiking ghosts from Disney's "Haunted Mansion". She studied Film and TV production at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. While at NYU, she interned at The Colbert Report and Saturday Night Live and completed the UCB improv program. Upon graduating she packed her tarot cards and moved to LA for a job as an NBC Page at Universal Studios. After leaving the page program, Sinead co-founded Shipwrecked Comedy, a YouTube sketch channel. Sinead has starred in many short films, sketches and commercials and on occasion can be found performing stand up. She continues to write pilots, features and sketches as well as fanfiction. Yes. Fanfiction. @sineadpersaud

Mary Kate Wiles (Producer, Actor - Annabel Lee)

Mary Kate is best known for her work as Lydia Bennet in the Emmy-award winning webseries The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, as well as her work in other popular webseries Squaresville (Zelda), School of Thrones (Sansa), and Kissing in the Rain (Lily). She can also be seen in the popular short film I Ship It (featured at Sundance Film Festival 2015), and many feature films including the upcoming Hello My Name is Frank and The Sound and the Shadow. She will appear onstage in Los Angeles this spring in Spies Are Forever at the NoHo Arts Center. She is incredibly excited to be a part of Poe Party and see this project she’s been watching Sean and Sinead write for a year finally come to life. @mkwiles

Joey Richter (Actor - Ernest Hemingway)

Joey is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan BFA Acting program where he also Minored in Global Media Studies. Film/TV credits include: Nickelodeon’s Genie in a Bikini and Henry Danger (The Time Jerker), Disney Channel’s Jessie (Officer Petey), several seconds of Fox’s Glee as Apple #8, The Legend of Korra, Mad, Monsters vs. Aliens, Manly, as well as Triggerfish’s film Khumba. Online credits include: School of Thrones, Muzzled & New Form Digital’s Incubator Series short, I Ship It. Theatrically, Joey has worked closely with StarKid Productions for the past 6 years since their creation in Ann Arbor, MI. His credits with Starkid include the Very Potter Musical Trilogy, the S.P.A.C.E and Apocalyptour national concert tours, Starship, and most recently The Trail to Oregon! which ran at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York this spring. Additionally, he co-produced/performed in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at Chicago’s Stage 773. He also is a cofounder, writer, actor, and producer of the Los Angeles based sketch comedy group, The Tin Can Brothers.

Ashley Clements (Actor - Charlotte Brontë)

You might know Ashley Clements as Lizzie Bennet in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Or maybe you saw her singing in a tiara in Muzzled the Musical. Or maybe you're not sure why Ashley looks familiar or who she is at all, and this bio isn't helping any. Ashley is super excited to join the weird Poe Party family and see which of her friends gets murdered. Catch her starring in the upcoming romantic comedy Non-Transferablewww.nontransferablefilm.com and follow Ashley @TheAshleyClem.

Blake Silver (Actor - H.G. Wells)

@blakesilver made his Broadway debut as the Associate Director of Deaf West's Spring Awakening at The Brooks Atkinson Theatre (previously in Los Angeles at The Wallis Annenberg & ICA); LA Ronde (The Forest of Arden). Writer/Director credits include the musical television pilot, Boyfred (ABC/Sony); #Cybriety starring Charlie Sheen (LAFF); and Reservoir Walking (Ray-Ban, Never Hide Films). Film credits include THOR (Marvel) and Glitch (opposite Lucas Neff and Lamorne Morris). Blake later reunited with THOR director Kenneth Branagh when he was cast alongside him in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor opposite Tom Hanks. TV credits include Hot In Cleveland, Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn, Knight Rider, and Monk. He can be seen in the viral hit "50 State Stereotypes (in 2 Minutes)." After training as a mime, Blake was offered the role of lead Beatle in Cirque Du Soleil's LOVE in Las Vegas, but had to turn it down because he couldn't restrain himself at those all-you-can-eat buffets. Training: Northwestern University.

The League of S.T.E.A.M. is a talented group of artists, performers, and inventors who take their audience back to a time of intrepid adventures, bridging the gap between the supernatural and the scientific; they are monster hunters from the Victorian era. The League of S.T.E.A.M. specializes in interactive entertainment, performing with a fusion of fantastic technology, interactive demonstrations, and theatrical trickery, and their live events showcase a mesmerizing array of fully functional gadgets and props meticulously designed to enchant and entertain audiences of all ages. Their mission is to create unforgettable entertainment, telling their stories through unique mix of interactive live shows, a popular web series, audio podcasts, and interactive fan club, and more. They will be creating original props for HG Wells' inventions in the project!

Sarah Grace Hart (Producer, Actor - Emily Dickinson)

Sarah Grace Hart, a Maryland native, moved to Los Angeles in February 2013. Since then she has been able to work with production companies such as The Allegiance Theater, Dead Fish Films, and of course, Shipwrecked Comedy. Sarah is also a member of SAG/AFTRA, Actors Link and the Young Storytellers Foundation. She studies with John Rosenfeld Studios and the Upright Citizens Brigade and is signed in LA Theatrically and Commercially by O'Neill Talent Group. Sarah can't wait to reprise her role as Emily at the dinner party!

Lauren Lopez (Actor - George Eliot)

Lauren is an actress, singer and dancer originally from the very exciting suburbs of Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she got her degree in acting from the Department of Theatre and Drama. Since 2009, Lauren has worked with theatre company Team StarKid on numerous projects, including 8 new musicals, two sold-out national tours and partnerships with The Second City. In addition to her work with StarKid, Lauren also works in the commercial circuit, acting in both regional and national commercials and ad campaigns. She just moved from Chicago to LA!

Margie Mintz (Actor - Agatha Christie)

Margie has lived in a bunch of places she's very fond of, especially Davenport, IA, Eugene, OR, New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA. Her loves include standup, storytelling, sketch comedy, and her husband and kids. She also produces theatre at the Zephyr Theatre in LA. She's SO excited for this Poe Party.

Melissa Hunter (Actor - Mary Shelley)

Melissa is an actress, writer and native Angeleno. She's a graduate of the Northwestern University theater program and a writer for the UCB sketch team Eastwood. She's best known for creating and starring in the web series ADULT WEDNESDAY ADDAMS which gained over 12 million views and 250K subscribers before being removed for copyright infringement. Last summer, she wrote and starred in the NBC pilot WOLFGIRL for their comedy program NBC Playground. Melissa recently starred in the New Form / Refinery29 web series SHITTY BOYFRIENDS, co-starring Sandra Oh and Executive Produced by Lisa Kudrow. She's currently developing a comedy series for TruTV about an amateur vigilante squad. She's also the proud owner a maniac kitten named Dorian Gray.
Twitter: @melissaftw / Instagram: @melissahunter

Ryan Garcia (Actor - Eddie the Banker)

Ryan Garcia is a graduate of the University of Central Florida BFA performance program, and has been an LA based actor and director for the past 6 years. He has recently been featured on Pretty Little Liars, Jane the Virgin, Rosewood, and (most fabulously) as Dean Pelton's pretend gay partner Domingo on Community. You can often catch Ryan on stage performing as ridiculous caricatures of Jeff Goldblum (Independence Day, Jurrasic Park), Tom Skerritt (Top Gun), and William Atherton (Ghost Busters) in 30 Minute Musicals at the Celebration Theatre.

Clayton Snyder (Actor - Fyodor Dostoevsky)

After his days as Ethan Craft on Disney's Lizzie McGuire, Clayton went on to major in Film Studies at Pepperdine University and play professional water polo in Europe. He has since returned to acting and has recently starred in indie films Hide in the Light, We Can't Die, and What Happened Last Night. Clayton can also be seen on YouTube, performing with 30 Minute Musicals, and at the pool playing for Repubblica Water Polo Club.

Jim O'Heir (Actor - Constable Jim)

Jim O'Heir is an American actor and comedian best known for co-starring as Garry (Larry, Terry, Jerry) Gergich on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation.
O'Heir first became active in Chicago theater and improv during the late 1980s and early 1990s as part of the comedic theater troupe "White Noise", and appeared in such plays as The Book of Blanche, Stumpy's Gang and Ad-Nauseam with the group. O'Heir has appeared in several films and made guest appearances on such shows as Friends, Boston Legal, Malcolm in the Middle, Star Trek: Voyager, 3rd Rock from the Sun, ER, and Parenthood. In 2009, O'Heir became a regular supporting cast member of the NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation, playing Garry Gergich.

Tom DeTrinis (Actor - Oscar Wilde)

A native New Yorker, Tom has performed on seven international stages, has had the pleasure of working in multiple independent films, and has appeared most recently on COMMUNITY, MIGHTY MED, and the latest season finale of SWITCHED AT BIRTH. He is co-founder and co-producer of the critically acclaimed company 30 Minute Musicals, which has created 15 (and counting) original parody musicals based on cult classic films over the past 5 years. More info at www.30mm.co and www.detrinis.com.

Jimmy Wong (Actor - Constable Jimmy)

Jimmy Wong is an actor, musician, and filmmaker from Seattle, WA. He is most well known for his roles in Video Game High School, short films on RocketJump, and hosting his own cooking show, Feast of Fiction.

Tara Perry (Actor - Louisa May Alcott)

Tara Perry is a actress who hails from Jonesboro, Arkansas. She starred on the hit Emmy winning Nickelodeon show The Fresh Beat Band and now voices the cartoon incarnation of the show, The Fresh Beat Band of Spies. She has appeared on Two and a Half Men and Up All Night and hosts an online movie preview show called The Movie Maven. She most recently co-starred in the Roddenberry produced short Instant, a music video for Third Eye Blind, the series John Hughes Ruined My Life, and the Radar pictures indie feature comedy Homecoming.

Jessica Jade Andres (Actor - Krishanti)

Jessica is an actress well known for her work in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Emma Approved, among many other things.

Risks and challenges

Every project has risks and challenges. This one DOESN'T.

Kidding.

Raven poop is hard to clean. Blood is also hard to clean. We have both in spades.

Kidding.

Like any film production, we fear losing our actors to fancier gigs, or just losing them in the giant mansion we are filming in. We also fear inspiring a league of copycat killers, which would be devastating.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $25 or more
About $25

--HORS D'OEUVRES--

To whet your appetite, we’ll send you a personalized name placeholder for your own table, an official Poe Party sticker, and you will receive access to exclusive behind the scenes vlogs (that will not be available to the public) as we move through production.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $50 or more
About $50

--AMUSE BOUCHE--

The chef has created a digital package for your sampling complete with a digital calendar, downloadable script, episode commentary, and digital featurettes . Also, the first 100 backers at this level will receive a limited-edition signed notecard used in the planning of this mystery! Plus 'Amouse Bouche' is pretty fun to say.

Also includes: Join Us in the Kitchen!, Cocktail Hour, and Hors D’oeuvres

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $100 or more
About $100

--MAIN COURSE--

Hope you’re hungry! This tier gets you a google hangout with the Shipwrecked writers (and available cast and crew) plus never-before-seen behind the scenes footage and interviews. You’ll also receive a one of a kind polaroid taken during production of the show—there will be none other like it at any dinner party, anywhere!

Also includes: Join Us in the Kitchen!, Cocktail Hour, Hors D’oeuvres, Amuse Bouche, and Soup and Salad

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

--CHEESE PLATE--

Just like a plate of fine cheeses, we’ve curated a limited edition book of the finest posters and on-set photos for your consumption. You also will get an exclusive thirty minute skype or google hangout with Shipwrecked and some of the cast of the show, pending availability.

Also includes: Join Us in the Kitchen!, Cocktail Hour, Hors D’oeuvres, Amuse Bouche, Soup and Salad, and Main Course

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $300 or more
About $300

--DESSERT--

Sweet as a chocolate souffle, you will receive an exclusive limited edition poster signed by the cast and crew that will only be available through this kickstarter. Not only that, but you will get a printable copy of the murder mystery game that the authors play in the series for your very own.

Also includes: Join Us in the Kitchen!, Cocktail Hour, Hors D’oeuvres, Amuse Bouche, Soup and Salad, Main Course, and Cheese Plate

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $5,000 or more
About $5,000

--FIGURING OUT HOW TO SPLIT THE CHECK--

Congratulations, you just became a bona fide producer! As such, you can be on set with us as much as you want, and we’ll even have a director’s chair with your name on it ready for your revered self. Transportation/lodging not provided.

Also includes: Join Us in the Kitchen!, Cocktail Hour, Hors D’oeuvres, Amuse Bouche, Soup and Salad, Main Course, Cheese Plate, Dessert, Brandy and Coffee, and After Dinner Mints

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $10,000
About $10,000

--MIDNIGHT SNACK--

Wow, you’ve really got an appetite, don’t you? Well you’re in luck, because at this level not only will you earn Executive Producer credit and all the perks listed above, but you can also choose a “deleted scene”—a scene referred to in the script but not included in the show—to be produced as an extra feature. Transportation/lodging not provided.

Also includes: Join Us in the Kitchen!, Cocktail Hour, Hors D’oeuvres, Amuse Bouche, Soup and Salad, Main Course, Cheese Plate, Dessert, Brandy and Coffee, After Dinner Mints and Figuring Out How to Split the Check